Praeterita

Last week, my writer-wife Patty and I taught some classes at Shake Rag Alley Art Center in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. As you can see in the above photo, the grounds of Shake Rag Alley, with their lush gardens and nineteenth century historic buildings, are perfect for sitting outside to do some drawing and writing. One of the activities we give students to work on is to write a series of instances, beginning with the phrases I remember/I don't remember/I'd rather not remember/I've been told. It's a great activity for stimulating memories of moments that come to be braided together in almost poetic ways. One of the best examples of that came from participant Wendy Moylan, who kindly agreed to allow me to post it here: Yellow I remember the old wedding shot, my grandpa lighting a cigarette in the flower girl’s mouth. I don’t remember if he’s smiling or gravely playing the joke. I’d rather not remember that he erased all stories in his barn. I’ve been told he ch...

My wife Patty and I recently taught another class at the Shake Rag Alley center for the arts in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The class was called The Artful Journal, and we spent a couple of days with the participants, making artist's books, writing, drawing outside in the beautiful gardens that surround the old buildings. Here are some examples of the work that was created: Truth be told, everyone who was there was so talented that it was difficult to think of how to teach them anything new. But I think it's always good for one's creative process to be somewhere away from one's normal routine, and to make things together in a spirit of community, even if some of the things one does are maybe more familiar than others. 

After a busy week preparing for the opening of my show DIA DEL PADRE in Chicago (see previous posts for me), I finally have the time to blog about the classes that Patty and I taught at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts last weekend. The slideshow of photos above starts with the linocut class, a one-day workshop in which I led three talented and enthusiastic people through the basics of transferring/drawing an image on the block, cutting, inking, and printing. By the end of the morning, everyone had made at least two prints, and by the end of the afternoon the drying table was covered with many more. The next day, we taught another one-day workshop -- the Journal and Sketchbook class, with ten people. We did four combined drawing/writing activities: quick-fire drawing; writing a scene; "take a place", which is a Story Workshop activity; blind contour drawing; and blind writing, where we ask students to write and cover up each preceding line with a piece of paper th...

On the last day of the Journal & Sketchbook class at Columbia College Chicago, which Patty and I taught this past Spring semester, every student was required to read four pages from their final manuscript, and to show a piece of narrative-based visual art that was related in some way to the writing. I blogged about that final day before ( click here to see ). I kept one set of pictures back, because the project was so outrageous it deserved a post of its own. Lynn Shapiro, who had already produced a stunning, large accordion book midway through the semester, completely outdid even that effort by bringing in an artist's book that actually folded together to make a small playhouse: Every surface was covered with intricate, bright collages of paper, fabric, hand-painted elements, and text, relating to journal entries that united her memories of her children growing up and her love for trees: There are clear references to Matisse there, but also, now I'm looking at it, ...

Here is one last set of photos from the class at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, last weekend. There was a lot of talent contained within just four people. And it's amazing how close people become during short but intense workshop weekends:   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

We're driving back from Wisconsin today, after wrapping up a successful weekend workshop at Shake Rag Alley: That's Patty with two of the students. We had a great time sitting around the table in Ellery House, the old wooden miners' cottage, writing on the paper that covered the work tables, setting up things to draw, and also to eat. There was a lot of writing time for the students to really explore the material that they started in the class: And once again, the blind contour drawing activity brought out some great drawing. One student said that once she got past the anxiety of not looking at the page, and once she let go the idea that there was a 'right' way to do it, she really enjoyed the almost meditative process of just letting the hand wander slowly around the page as it follows the movements of the eyes:   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

So here we are in bright and sunny Mineral Point, Wisconsin, for the three-day Journal and Sketchbook class at the Shake Rag Alley Arts Center. We're staying at the house of one of the board members, who live near the high street in this Cornish-style town: The classes are being held in an old wooden cottage in Shake Rag Alley, which as I've said in previous posts is a little valley in the side of a hill which is lined with log cabins built by pioneers and emigrant Cornish miners: The weather has been kind to us, and we've been able to send the class attendees outside for drawing activities: It's a lively class of willing people, and even in these few days we can see the progress in their writing brought about by the different writing and sketching activities.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

It's only one week to go until the Journal and Sketchbook class at Shake Rag Alley, in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. This is an ideal class to get started on a writing project you've been thinking about, whether memoir or fiction, or to get fresh inspiration for something you've already started. The drawing and writing exercises are ideal for complete beginners or for people with previous experience of writing and drawing. There are still places left, and it costs $185 for Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. We did a similar abbreviated version of this class at Interlochen in June. Here is what one of the students from that class, called David, said about it: "As one of many who attended Interlochen 2010 and were introduced to Philip and Patty for the first time: it is well worth the small fee to attend. For those of you who are concerned that you have neither writing or artistic talent, this event will generate an enthusiasm and willingness that you did not know you ...

Page from Jacquelyn Astorga's journal, J&S class, 2008 In this post I'm going to bang the drum like a barker outside a circus tent for a weekend workshop that Patty and I will be teaching on October 1, 2, 3 . It's a three-day version of the Journal & Sketchbook class, which regular readers of this blog may recall my talking about when I co-taught it for 15 weeks in the Spring semester at Columbia College, and for one week at Interlochen Arts Academy in June. From Meredith Grahl's journal, Interlochen 2010 Shake Rag Alley is an arts center in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and the classes are held in log cabins and stone buildings created by tin and silver miners more than 100 years ago. It's a beautiful little arts town, that looks very like the towns in Cornwall, England. I published an interview with one of the center's directors back in May. Here are details for the class from the Shake Rag Alley website: Friday eve, Saturday and Sunday, October ...

Hammered jewelry made by a student in Judy's class In part 1 of this interview with Judith Sutcliffe , we talked about how she got involved with Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The interview continues below with a discussion of Judith's own artistic biography. Philip: We’ve spoken a lot about Mineral Point. Now I’d like to find out about your own artistic history. Judith: Before I absconded to Santa Barbara in 1978, I had a pottery in my small Iowa home town, Audubon, and I experimented with a lot of things. I'm kinda entrepreneurial. Someone gave me a necklace made of beads and hammered copper wire, and I just started doing wire jewelry on the side. I also sculpted dolls, culminating in doing all the Iowa First Lady Dolls still in their big glass case in the Des Moines capitol building. But once I was in California , I concentrated on tile murals for homes, business, and signage. It was a full time business for 17 years. On the side I designed computer f...

Entrance to Shake Rag Alley Judith Sutcliffe is an artist and writer, and a co-founder of the Shake Rag Alley Center for Arts and Crafts in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. I recently had the opportunity to visit Shake Rag Alley, and see how Judith and her partner Sandra  have transformed it into a thriving arts center. The interview is divided into two parts. In part 1, below, we discuss the history of Shake Rag Alley and the artistic community in Mineral Point. In part 2, published tomorrow, we will talk about Judith's own art, past and present. Philip: Could you tell us a little about the history of Shake Rag Alley? Judith: It's in Mineral Point , an artists’ community in southwest Wisconsin known for its 1840s limestone buildings made by Cornish lead miners. Early miners clustered their cabins around Federal Spring in a small valley known as Shake Rag Under the Hill or Shake Rag Alley. Some of the cabins are still there, and the spring is still flowing, winter and summer. ...